Seats of various types having extensible and retractable tables associated with an arm thereof have long been known in the furniture industry. Owing, however, to a number of disadvantageous characteristics, prior seats of the type described have not met with great favor.
An early example of a prior chair with a pivotable table attached to the arms is U.S. Pat. No. 624,812. That arrangement was inconvenient because the table had to be grasped at the bottom for opening, the outer side wall surface itself comprised the table, and the design did not lend itself to contemporary upholstered styling. Upholstered chairs with extensible tables may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,726,109; 1,907,322; 2,767,771; and British Patent Number 217,037, all of which exhibit undesirable features. Thus, for example, the '109 patent requires a complicated and design-inhibiting system of tracks and slides; the '322 patent has the table affixed and pivotally attached to the arm side panel and a complex linkage system; patent '771 shows a bulky structure in which the table surface comprises the outer side wall upholstered surface; and the British patent undesirably has the door or arm side panel extending and lying far out on the floor.
There thus exists a need for an upholstered seat with a concealed and extensible table that overcomes problems of the type described.